Agree. Locast was a necessary service. I am able to live without it through the luck of geography but others just have to do without. I would recommend writing your congressman but nothing useful gets done in that town -- unless you can hire lobbyists like the networks.
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Now that I've bought the HDHR Flex I'll mainly miss Locast when out in the travel trailer. You can get mobile data a lot more places than you can bet a decent TV signal, not to mention having to aim properly.
I've not setup or used the Channels Remote DVR function before, so hopefully that will be a good substitute.
I wonder if it might be legal for Channels users to share our antenna feed with users in the same market? There would need to be some work within the software to make it happen, but I wonder if it would be legal or if they would sue us anyway regardless.
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if it were even legal (which i'm not sure it is, although if you're not charging for it and set up a non-profit i would imagine you'd qualify for the same exemption locast was after), the main issue there would be tuner count. you'd effectively have to have 70 tuners (using the LA market as an example, i believe locast had 70 channels available) and each tuner locked on a single channel which would then pass that signal on to whoever wanted it at any given time. the bandwidth costs would also (i would imagine) be huge, not to mention if your ISP caught you doing it you'd probably have your service cut off since running stuff like this residentially is against their TOS.
I was thinking of a crowd source sort of thing. I volunteer one tuner for anyone who needs it to use. They use it to watch live or record, then they drop and the tuner is available to someone else. There would probably need to be a central server to coordinate this or maybe it can be distributed. We'd need a bunch of folks in each market, but it sounds feasible.
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This looks like a great Antenna . I ordered it for one of my clients will see how it works ... If it doesn't Amazon has a great return policy ...
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Just ordered one myself. I'm not optimistic but loosing Locast i'll try it and see. As you said Amazon has great return options.
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Try it with the AMP first at minimum and move up ... sometimes AMPS overload Silicondust tuners if it does just remove it.
Im sorry if this has been answered here or another thread:
But what other streaming services give you local channels? I used to have direct tv but when using its log in, it didn't give me local channels. Only locast did.
Los Angeles rea. Thanks.
I'm in Barstow at a hotel and just did a scan with Xfinity and got abc cbs nbc fox and 2 pbs stations from the LA market. Which is pretty good at home I only get nbc.
When you access your local TV stations via TVEverywhere, how does it appear in the guide? Do you see data specific to your region, or do you just see generic programming?
Make sure you have enabled the checkbox at the bottom of the DVR settings page, under Experimental.
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Or maybe some sort of tuner sharing would be a more strait forward add. I share one tuner of my antenna device with someone of my choosing. Possible? Likely?
I am of the opinion that anyone in the OTA coverage area (users who were using locast), would be able to get most if not all of the same channels with an antenna. And in much higher quality (both video and audio). In some cases, it would require more work and ingenuity. You probably need a directional antenna, and you might need to get up on the roof to mount it. And you would need to aim it just right. But, if you are serious about the highest quality free TV, this is really the only solution. I have been using antennas for years. I've got two of them. They are not visible from the street looking at my house. And I live in a city with big buildings and lots of traffic. But I am kind of a perfectionist and would never settle for Locast, so I put the time in to do it right. But you can do it too.
this couldn't be further from the case. there are a TON of people who can't get signals OTA.
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Why do you think people were using Locast ... don't you think they have tried antennas etc... in the past ?
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In the best of all possible worlds people would have the knowledge and physical ability to do just as you describe. But in the best of worlds, none of this would be necessary. You’ve probably already experienced the flaws that come with perfectionism, if not, soon. There are plenty of legitimate reasons why antennas are not practical or possible for many. I’m just spitballing solutions. Maybe helpful, maybe not.
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Go here and enter your location then share the results link.
@psperry it’s an intriguing idea. And as I love to say at my work.. “I can do anything given infinite time and money”. Technically I would think it’s definitely possible to have some kind of centrally managed “pool” that brokers connections between folks. You could even require somebody to share as many tuners as they want to consume. Legality would be a question mark and if it was as attached to a business of any kind it would likely be attacked if it became large enough. They would probably claim that it’s a “rebroadcast” of their content.
Interesting idea. It could be arranged sot of like some nonprofits which have local “chapters.” I know for instance Habitat for Humanity works that way with local chapters that cover x city or in sparsely populated places maybe several counties. When donating you can earmark it for an individual chapter or overall. Maybe a Locast successor could follow a similar pattern where donations are kept in the DMA they belong to. They could even set it up where if your area isn’t served yet ypu can still give a donation which would be earmarked for your area and is held towards start-up costs for a local “chapter.”